Dark Carnival - 3/5: Coaster
The Coaster is the third chapter in the Left 4 Dead 2 campaign, Dark Carnival. Strategy Campaign When starting from this chapter, the AI Survivors will usually grab... *'Nick' will grab an Assault Rifle. *'Ellis' will grab a Sniper Rifle. *'Rochelle' will grab an Assault Rifle. *'Coach' will grab an Combat Shotgun. Otherwise, they will keep the weapons they had in the last chapter (see The Fairgrounds for a list of weapons they will grab there). You made it through the sadistic fairgrounds. Grab some ammo, heal, and be ready to enter the Tunnel of Love. When you leave, head up the stairs, then down the next set of them. When you enter the main tunnel, make sure to clear the crowd of Common Infected that are no doubt hiding to your left. When passing the alcoves that have the cutout scenes in them, look behind the cutouts; they usually contain pills, ammo packs, etc. Keep going until you find some doors on the right of the tunnel. Enter them, and there should be a pile of ammo on a large spool. When done in there, head into the maintenance room. Look on the table under the stairs for a chainsaw or grenade launcher. Look under the pipes near the stairs as well, because there will be a weapon of some kind. Go up the stairs, and head into the room at the end of the walkways. Inside is a weapon, and often pistols and laser sights. Head up the stairs, and into the next room. There is a large hole, but before jumping down, it may be a good idea to throw a molotov or propane tank down and shoot it. Large crowds of Common Infected tend to spawn down there, so a pre-emptive attack is a good idea. Jump down as a group so a Smoker can't grab the last one and strand them. Keep going through the tunnel until you get to the blasted hole in the wall. On a table inside, there are weapons. After leaving the room, head into the building in front and to the left of you. There is a first aid station, and in the room attached to it are some supplies, often containing Laser Sights. Go outside, and look in the back of the truck. There should be some weapons in there. Go into the space with trees and fences. Go over the bent section, and into the fenced in coaster area. Head towards the Crescendo Event trigger, and hit it. When facing it, turn left, and look down. There is usually some pills on the ground. You'll need them. This is the longest Gauntlet Crescendo Event in the game, and the whole team will often lose a large amount of health. Run along the tracks, but make sure your team is with you the whole time; Chargers and Smokers can take care of runners very quickly. When you turn off the coaster in the small room at the end of the tracks, quickly pick off any Infected as Survivors go across the cue line. Right after heading onto the bridge, you should see the safe room, but be careful, the Director will sometimes spawn a Witch right in front of it. Hurry, but make sure not to leave any injured Survivors behind. When you are inside, rest for a minute, and get ready to traverse through The Barns. Versus The Survivors *When leaving the safe room, be wary of Chargers; a common tactic is for a Charger to charge the ramp leading out of the safe room, scattering everyone and bringing one back into the room. *If a Tank spawns in the first tunnel, try to stay in the docking area so you have room to move. *Remember: bullets penetrate the props in the side rooms of the tunnel. Open fire if you think you hear Infected hiding behind them. *When in the room after the maintenance tunnel with the hole in the ground, throw a Molotov at the wall behind you to repel attackers, then coordinate your descent so all Survivors fall in at about the same time. *If you fall off the tracks before the steep drop, there's a ladder you can use to climb back up. *Abuse melee weapons and shotguns to cut your way through the Infected during the Gauntlet Crescendo. However, keep at least two ranged weapons in case a teammate needs help form a distance. The Infected *Tank spawn locations include the first tunnel and the rollercoaster, prior to the Gauntlet Crescendo. **If spawned in the first tunnel, try to keep Survivors in the tunnel as to limit their movement space, but be wary of Molotovs. *In the second tunnel, if you go the wrong way, there's a climbable pipe leading back up to the room with the hole in the ground if you go into the small room. There will be a smashable wall there; use this to surprise stragglers who only expect an attack from the doorway! *Survivors cannot climb back up the steep drop on the coaster. Try to incapacitate, pounce, constrict, or ride a straggler backwards so their teammates can't come back to save them. Notes * In the beginning, Rochelle or Nick refers to the Tunnel of Love as "the most relaxing safe room I've ever been in". * It's unknown if the Tunnel of Love was a place where the Survivors could hold out but the Infected broke through some of the Barricades as seen by all the of the Love boats being piled up on some of the gates and exits. * Occasionally, when a Survivor finds an item or a passage in the Tunnel of Love, he/she will add the term "of Love" to the end of the item. For example: "Frag rounds of Love here." "Quickly! Into the Maintenance Tunnel of Love!" is said by Nick or Ellis, or, "Air duct of Love," when Rochelle crawls through the air duct. ** Alternatively when Ellis crawls through the air duct, he makes a small reference to Valve's Half-Life series, as the main character is often forced to crawl through vents to get to his destination. "One thing video games have taught me, good shit always comes in vents." * It is wise to avoid turning off the coaster alarm if you haven't encountered a Tank in this level, as a Tank spawn is occasionally linked to shutting the alarm off. * It is possible to kill the entire team as a Charger in one charge. Simply wait at the top of the coaster, out of the way of the coaster cart itself. After the Survivors have activated the coaster and the carts go by, get ready to charge them as soon as they reach the top of the very first incline. If done right you will grab one of them, and send the other flying backwards to be killed or incapacitated. * In Versus, if you are Infected and you get ran over by the coaster, you will instantly die. If you stand on the tracks as an infected in pre-spawn (ghost) mode, the coaster will still push you aside as it passes. * When entering the ending safe room, both doors will be ending safe room doors. When the next chapter loads, however, the one leading to the next level will be the correct one. * Originally the Coaster was supposed to crash causing the alarm to go off, which would have explained the fire in the Zombie Survival Guide, but it was cut. * Sometimes a Witch will spawn on the coaster which will instantly kill it. * Originally the Coaster was supposed to be a survival level also, but cut it in the final version because you are able to stand on the wood that holds the track up and Infected could not attack you. * The survival level can be accessed by the use of glitches.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQW1CHGRVuU * If one is to use noclip to pass the blocked area rather than go through the maintenance room, then a survivor can run the entire length of the tunnel of love from the safe room to the opening leading to the coaster. Also, in the blocked off section of the tunnel there is a boarded up wall and an orange spray painted arrow across from a door-sized spot with no texture. This may be evidence that valve originally intended for it to be a possible route for the survivors to go through. * If you go to the safe room after the coaster as an infected and climb on top of the safe room, on the other side is the barns level, but there are only a few buildings and no-draw areas, including the canopy where there are normally picnic tables. The rest of the map is drawn in during the loading screen after the survivors close the safe room door. * There is a way to skip the Coaster Crescendo Event. If you are standing next to the alarm, face forward towards the direction you came from. All the way down, there are wooden rails you can carefully jump on in order to climb the coaster. It takes a lot of patience and a lot of tries as you have to carefully plan your next jump. If done right, you will be standing on the Coaster tracks and can just run along the Coaster to the safe room without ever triggering the horde. Be careful not to start the event if you're on the tracks because the coaster car will run over and instantly kill you. References Category:Dark Carnival Category:Chapters Category:Left 4 Dead 2